Landmasters of the Teutonic Order in Livonia

Livonia on the map
John Portantius 1573

Livonia on the map
Gerard Mercator , after 1604

Livonia on the map
John Jansson 1642

The ruins of the Order Castle of Rositten in Livonia

Wesenberg Order Castle in Livonia

Plan of the Hermes Castle in Livonia . XVII century
Stockholm Military Archive

Armament of the Teutonic Knight .
Estonian History Museum in Tallinn

This list shows the landmasters (in the sources the term master is used ( lat. Magister ^[1] , n. German meyster ^[2] or meister ^{[3] [4]} ) of the Teutonic Order in the historical province of Livonia from 1237 until its formation in 1561 the year of the secular duchy of Courland and Zemigale ^[5] .

Although Livonian land-mastery (the sources use the term Teutonic order in Livonia ( lat. Sancta Maria domus Theutonicorum in Liuonia ^[1] , in the Low German , variants of Duitsche orden tho Liflande ^{[2] [6]} , Duitsche ordenn tho Lifflandt ^[3] , zu Lifflanndt ^[7] and Teutsche ordenn zu Liefflandt ^[4] )) enjoyed some autonomy, it was only part of a single Teutonic Order . The pope and the German Kaiser were the patrons and, at least in theory, his supreme leaders ^[8] . Formally, the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order carried out only control functions. At first, this did not matter much, since until 1309 his place of permanent residence was in Venice , and even after moving to Marienburg he did not impede his autonomy, as he rarely visited Livonia personally or sent representatives there to control ^[8] . Nevertheless, the power of the grandmaster was enormous, his advice was long considered equal to the order and his instructions obeyed without question ^[8] .